8 Year Old Comfort
by Kagome-Inu5
Summary: Prequal to my Dark Forest one-shot. Enjoy.


**AN: I decided to write one more DxC one-shot about Duncan and Courtney when they were little. Kind of a prequel to my other one-shot when they were 12.

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"Duncan, we're leaving now!" He heard his Ma call upstairs to him, and Duncan groaned in response and covered his head with a pillow.

"It's...too...early..." 8 year old Duncan whined to himself, glancing at his Spider-Man clock that said 6:34 AM. He didn't even have to get up for school for at least another hour! His parents just did this to drive him crazy, he was sure of it.

After a few minutes of laying in his race car shaped bed, and failing to fall back asleep, he hopped out of it and decided to go watch some cartoons.

On his way downstairs, he peeked out the large front window in the living room, and spotted his next door neighbour sitting on her front step outside her house. Her knees pulled up to her chest and her face in her hands, but she was illuminated in a golden color by the streetlight beside her. It made her sparkle, almost like some kind of sad fairy or something, Duncan decided.

He hopped onto the large leather couch and grabbed the remote off the coffee table. He started watching cartoons, but before even the first commecial break, Duncan made an extra stop upstairs to make sure his older brothers were still asleep. They were.

_And Ma really expects them to get me to school on time? Ha!_ The little boy thought with a grin before bounding back downstairs quietly, and was out the front door in a second.

He saw her again, but her face was no longer in her hands, and her legs were stretched out in front of her. She was staring at him right back. Though she didn't speak till he was sitting beside her on the concrete step.

"Why are you wearing Speed Racer PJs?"

Duncan had to stifle a blush. He knew he should of changed first!

"Um...I got them for Christmas." He paused, then quickly changed the subject. "So why are you crying? Did your fish had to get flushed down the toilet?" Duncan thought back to when that happened to him, and he was really sad, but he didn't cry! He remembered telling his Mom he was too old for crying.

Courtney shook her head. "Daddy left."

"But he'll be back, right? Parents always come back." He said with an easy smile. That's what his brother's told him, that they left, but always came back. And they always did.

"Nuh uh. He had this big, ugly, um... case...thing." Courtney struggled to remember what her Father had called it.

"A suite case?" Duncan questioned with an amused expression, his tone clearing saying _'Wow you're stupid,'_ which caused Courtney smacked him on the arm.

"Ow! What was that for?!"

"For being a smarty pants!"

Duncan rolled his eyes, well, the best he could, before staring at Courtney again.

"He took a suite case and left... so?" Duncan was sure he would come back, so it seemed like nothing to him.

Moister seemed to well up in the brunette's eyes again, and Duncan panicked inside.

"N-No don't cry!" He begged her, waving his arms around in a freaked out manor.

She sniffled, more tears were definitely on the way. Duncan quickly put his hands on both sides of her cheeks and got on his knees, down in front of her.

"Don't cry!" He repeated, and Courtney grimaced and shoved him away.

"Yuck! Your hands are all sticky!" She rubbed at her cheeks, the tears gone, almost like magic.

Duncan -to Courtney's utmost disgust- sniffed at his fingertips and laughed. "Oh yeah. Mom left pancakes out for me this morning and I opened the syrup, but it fell over and got everywhere, but I tried to wipe it up." He smiled proudly at himself for the last part.

"With your hands?" She gave him an odd look, like she thought he was an idiot. Whatever that was. She had heard her Mother call her Dad that a lot this morning.

"Well yeah. But then I just got Petey to lick it up."

"You shouldn't give your dogie syrup! Dummy!" Courtney stood up, glaring at the boy in front of her.

Duncan took a few steps back from the female which confused her. He suddenly smiled widely which weirded her out even more.

"You look like a pretty Princess!" He shouted suddenly.

Courtney looked down at her dress-like night gown, up at the bright streetlight above, then forced a smile back at him.

"Ooh! Wait! Stay right there!" He ordered, running back into his house right next door, which left Courtney to sit on the steps again.

_He's so weird. And I'll probably have to get a cooties shot for him touching me!_ The so-called Princess thought with a frown.

But before she could think it through any further, Duncan came back outside with something sparkly and silver in his hands.

Courtney opened her mouth to speak, but Duncan suddenly plopped something down onto her head and took another step back.

"Yup. You're definitely a Princess." He smiled at the plastic tiara he had put on her.

Courtney was smiling widely now, just like Duncan had wanted to make her do the moment he stepped outside.

"Well are you gonna be my Prince, then?" She stood up and walked up to him while she spoke, and she noticed he was quite a bit taller than she was.

Duncan and Courtney had never really talked much to each other before, other than the obligated hello's when they saw each other around the neighbourhood, or at school.

He grimaced. "Gross, no way! They always kiss at the end. And I'm not kissing you!"

Courtney put her hands on her hips and glared at him. "What's _wrong _with kissing me?"

"Girl germs. Yuck." He shuddered.

She took of the crown and shoved it back at him. "I'm going inside!"

He chuckled and picked her up with a bit of effort which caused her to shrieked in surprise.

"I am the evil... King! And I am stealing the Princess!" He tried to laugh evilly, but it sounded more silly than scary.

Deciding to play along, Courtney put the crown back on and pretended to gasp in horror. "Oh no! How will I ever escape? Someone help!"

They both burst out laughing, and when Courtney's mother and Duncan's two brothers both opened their front doors at the same moment, they smiled at the two kids.

Feeling embarrassed, Duncan quickly dropped the Princess right on her butt on the cement. She yelped, and he quickly shot her an apologetic expression before darting in between his two brothers and yelled "Later, Princess Courtney!"

Courtney's mother helped her up and chuckled, though her eyes were still quite red and puffy from crying, she had rushed outside the moment she heard Courtney scream.

"I think he'll make a great Prince for you one day." She said with a warm smile, tapping the tiara on her head.

"And I think," Courtney ripped the plastic accessory from her head once again. "He's a meanie."

"He's just mean cause he likes you." Duncan's brother Dylan said with a smirk, leaning up against the open door.

_Mean cause he likes me? ...Grown-ups think up the weirdest things._

"You'll understand eventually, Honey." Her Mother picked her up with ease and smiled at Dylan who grinned back.

"Just wait till you're 16." Was Dylan's last words before he went inside and shut the door behind him.

16... that was so far away from now. But Courtney could wait. Right now, her and Duncan, were just two kids. Balancing on the line between friends and enemies. Which way they went, was any body's guess.

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**AN: So there you have it! The little back story behind Courtney and Duncan's little moment when he figured out he hated to see her cry. ^_^ Reviews are always welcome!**


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